Iceland

image/svg+xml Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) A blank map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and countries fully surrounded by the EHEA. Every country has an id which is its ISO-3116-1-ALPHA2 code in lower case. Members of the EU have a class="eu", all EHEA countries have a class="europe", non-EHEA countries have a class="nonehea". Image based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe_(with_disputed_regions).svg by Júlio "Tintazul" Reis and Marian "maix" Sigler. Made by Colin Tück, EQAR, 2017 Released under CreativeCommons Attribution ShareAlike (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/).
  • Governmental membership
    Iceland has been a Governmental Member of EQAR since April 2023.

    Map: EHEA countries by governmental membership

  • General information on higher education

    Icelandic higher education institutions (HEI) operate under the law 63/2006 on universities and 85/2008 on public universities. 

  • National external quality assurance requirements

    The Minister of Higher Education grants accreditation to HEI that fulfil the criteria laid down in national legislation as well as internationally accepted criteria. The external quality assurance is run by the Icelandic Agency for Quality Assurance according to the Quality Enhancement Framework.

    • Institution Wide Reviews
      All institutions go through an institution-wide review within a six year cycle. The focus of the review is on the institutions' arrangements to secure and enhance the quality of their activities, including learning and teaching, research and innovation, and the link between the internal quality system and strategic management.

    • Subject-Level Reviews
      Within each cycle, all institutions are required to conduct reviews covering each of their subject areas as part of their internal quality assurance procedures.

  • EHEA key commitment

    Partially aligned with the ESG

    A fully functioning quality assurance system is in operation nationwide but only some higher education institutions are subject to regular external quality assurance by an agency that has successfully demonstrated compliance with the ESG through registration on EQAR

    Map: implementation of the EHEA key commitment

  • Cross-border quality assurance

    Not recognising foreign agencies as part of the national external QA requirements

    Map: recognition of cross-border quality assurance

  • European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes

    European Approach not available to higher education institutions

    Map: availability of the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes

  • Permalink
    https://data.deqar.eu/country/75
  • Further information

Registered agencies operating in Iceland